STORY BASICS AND RULES

HEY. WANNA WRITE A STORY ABOUT LITERALLY WHATEVER YOU WANT, AND SEE YOUR HARD WORK TURN INTO ALL THE COOL POKÉMON YOU CAN’T BUY FROM THE MART? LOOK NO FURTHER.

One of the main ways to gain more Pokémon for your team is to write a story. Your story can be about pretty much anything, but here are some quick rules that we ask you to abide by:

1. We do have to hold by forum rules. Keep stories clean. Because we are hosted on public forums that cater to younger members, we ask that you clearly mark mature themes at the beginning of your story should you choose to write about them. This includes explicit language, graphic content, gore, and any non-PG-13 topics.

2. New to writing? Scared of the pages and pages of crit that you see around here? That’s okay! Beginner stories are usually graded more gently, with grades becoming more in-depth the more experience you get. This isn’t a rule, but know that’s you can use your first stories to test your limits. The whole point is to keep improving.

3. Returning member? There have been some changes over the years: you no longer need to purchase or throw Pokéballs to capture a Pokémon; you can feature any Pokémon in your story (including ones you don’t own, and definitely the one you’re trying to capture), and you don’t have to end the capture on a “is [Pokémon] captured!?” any more.

4. Do write Pokémon fiction. This means that the Pokémon you want to capture must be relevant to the story itself. For Pokémon that are difficult to capture, these appearances should be more important.

5. All work belongs to their respective owners. Only publish your writing. Plagiarism will have harsh consequences.

6. All stories should be a good faith effort: write as well as you can. You don’t have to be publishing your masterwork every time, but strive to challenge yourself: try new things, take grader advice to heart, and never write a crappy story just because you can. Furthermore, this is about improving your writing. Don’t re-publish more than 50,000 characters of stories that have been posted elsewhere if the original is more than a year old. Re-publication is allowed for at most one story per year, so try cross-posting (posting on both venues simultaneously) instead!

tl;dr: do what you love. Be creative. It’s your story. As long as you are mindful of your peers, almost anything here is gonna be welcome.

GRADERS AND FEEDBACK

Graders are your best friends. Their job is to read your story, provide comprehensive feedback to help improve your writing, and ultimately determine whether or not you catch the Pokémon in your story.

FeedbackIf you would like to comment about a story in the URPG, use the URPG Story Feedback thread (BMG, PWN, PXR) or PM any of the grading staff directly. Additionally, feel free to post in the thread itself, but please wait to do so until after a grade is posted.

Triumphant ReturnsOnce a grader, always a grader. If you come back after a long hiatus, we welcome you with open arms. Ping a Head Grader to let them know you’re back, but there’s no need to retest or anything.

HOW TO CATCH POKÉMON

All Pokémon are assigned a rank, and this determines what sort of story quality a member must have to successfully capture that Pokémon. Here are some basic guidelines for what’s expected of each rank, but please keep in mind that MCR (minimum character requirement) is just a guideline/good place to aim for. It is not absolute. A good story may pass when it’s under MCR, and a story may fail even if it meets or exceeds MCR.

MCR values include spaces. So. Don’t use word count, don’t do just character count; do do character count + spaces.

-Rank Rundowns-

Easiest – New to the URPG stories? This is a good level to aim for if you are unsure of your writing abilities. Very simple storyline, minimum detail and battle, and only about 3-5K characters are needed for a successful capture, but there isn’t a very wide selection of Pokémon to choose from this list.

Simple – Slightly more difficult. Simple storyline, details, battle and about 5-10K per capture. Also can be a good starting point for uncertain writers.

Medium – A little tougher, because most areas need to be more elaborate along with a 10–20K character range. A good place to aim, for slightly more experienced authors.

Hard – All areas should be relatively strong, totaling in with a character range of about 20-30K. Suggested for more confident writers.

Complex – As the name implies, things get difficult here. Improved storyline and description is a must for captures at this level, and the 30-40K needed can be quite challenging. Stories at this level and above take time and patience, so don’t try to pump something out for this category all at once.

Demanding – 40-55K is a good range to shoot for when going for captures under this category. Make sure to go over your text more than once, refining grammar and including important description while maintaining a very strong storyline. A run-of-the-mill story like ‘kid wanders into the forest until a Pokémon appears’ has no chance at this level, so get creative!

Merciless – This is a very harsh rank, to be sure. Everything about your story should be improved upon as the captures in this category are so ridiculously difficult that most people would find it too much of a hassle to even try for this level. 55-65K is necessary, but don’t expect length alone to save you. Remember that length can vary, so you should be more focused on refining your story, rather than achieving the estimate range. Only go for this rank if you crave a serious writing challenge.

Stupefying – This level calls for a range of about 65-75K, but fear not, for only the most ree-freaking-diculous Pokémon will ever climb this high up the ladder. And since the only available capture of this category can be achieved through evolution anyway, this rank is mainly just for anyone who wants a long, grueling, long, burdensome, long, difficult and long challenge. As expected, this story should not only be amazing and original but virtually perfect for all grading sections. Good luck!

WRITING FOR CASH

If a user doesn’t want to write to capture a Pokémon, they have another option in making a story for cash instead. The process is the same as normal. A member submits a story, a Grader evaluates it, and then, depending on which rank it passes under, the writer them claims cash as their prize instead of a Pokémon.

Make sure to indicate that the story if for cash instead of a normal capture somewhere in your post.

The user does not need to declare rank but can if they want to—the Grader, however, has final say on where it fits. A Grader claims, grades as normal, and is paid as normal. The Grader determines which rank the piece passes under similar to how they would for captures. They already look at the target rank or just go through each rank and ask themselves, does it pass at Merciless? Yes/No. Demanding? Yes/No. Etc, until they find where it fits. The member gets a set money amount depending on which rank their story passes under This is separate from capture attempts—users have to pick one or the other.

Some rules:

You are limited to 3 Medium-rank or lower cash stories per month. However, you can write as many Hard rank+ stories as you’d like. Go nuts.

You can submit an edited story if you wish to attempt a higher rank–just post after the grade indicating your intent to rewrite.

This means that pieces are not judged by MCR—quality is always most important

Pokémon ranks are not considered—the overall quality determines the rank

If your target rank and the decided rank don’t mesh, talk to your Grader about why!

-Cash Payouts-

Easiest – 3k

Simple – 5k

Medium – 10k

Hard – 20k

Complex – 30k

Demanding – 40k

Merciless – 55k

Stupefying – 70k

WRITING FOR GLORY

Twice a year, URPG gathers to test our mettle as authors. Contests take a variety of forms: sometimes, you’re pitted head-to-head with fellow URPG’ers to discover the best story; sometimes, you’re given challenges and your opponent is yourself! Rules will typically be outlined in the thread itself, so keep your eyes peeled.

-Graphic Content Warning-

For contests that require voting,(SWC/WWC/Invitational), anyone who votes must read your story. Please refrain from graphic content as well as swear words entirely.

-Story Contests-
Who can write the best story and possibly win a legendary? Story contests will happen every July and December. Only one story may be submitted per person. The story must catch at least one Pokémon to qualify as an entry. This is not a popularity contest; it’s about who can write the best overall story. The longest story is not always the best.

The winner is determined by the readers. Votes will be sent to the person running the contest, not posted on the forum. Points are tallied up and the person with the most will win a Legendary not already taken. The winner gets to keep the Legendary for one year.

~Note: Any member of the URPG may vote.
~Other Note: There will also be other contests with different rules and smaller prizes.

-Collaborative Writing System-
This new system allows for two people (or a max of three) to write a story together for the URPG stories. Rules are subject to change, but for now, as long as you do your best to follow these, it’s all good.

All authors of a collaborative story must aim for captures of equal difficulty and it should be clearly stated, either at the beginning or end of the story, which author intends to catch which Pokémon. In other words, if one author is trying to capture two mons for him/herself, then the other author must also attempt to capture two mons for him/herself. OR, if one author wants to go for something more difficult, the other author needs only to match the estimated character count. For example, if someone wants to capture a Medium-difficulty Pokémon, the other author can match that with two Simple-difficulty mons for him/herself. If that’s too confusing, then…just keep things balanced between you guys.

SOME OTHER STUFF

-Story Passes-
Story passes are marvelous little gifts that can be received at every gift station. These passes reduce the rank of a single Pokemon to the next lowest rank, meaning a Complex Pokemon would be graded as a Hard Pokemon, a Hard Pokemon would be graded as a Medium Pokemon, and so on. Only one pass may be used on a single Pokemon, and only one pass can be used in a single story. Passes cost 10k and can be handed out at gift stations, among other events.

Let it be known that Story Passes cannot be used to manipulate certain competitions that award authors based on ranking. It’s cheating the system, and you should really give it your all in competitions anyway.

-Legendary Achievement-

You can’t write directly for Legendary Pokemon, but you can earn a Legendary Pokemon through legendary achievement. It’s awesome. Read more here